Published in the December 2013 issue of the Journal of the Kansas Bar Association.

Co-authored with classmate Moji Fanimokun, Government Affairs Director at Wichita Area Association of REALTORS.

The Journal is published 10 times a years and is read by more than 7,000 members. The Journal features legal articles, hot legal news, summaries of recent Kansas Supreme Court and Kansas Court of Appeals opinions, and upcoming information about available continuing legal education.

“At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.” – Albert Camus

Feelings about turning 30 vary among individuals. Broadly it is a time of introspection (usually the week leading up to the big day), positive and uplifting for some, and nerve-wracking for others. The essential question, “Who am I?” floats in their minds. Coming into just over the half-way point of my 30th year of life I clearly remember that week. Specifically for me the question was, “Am I the man I thought I would be?” Not perfect by any means, but in the sum of my imperfections and capabilities the man I was meant to be. One can only hope so. Or rather accept that this is the life you have and get on with it.

Toasting myself for keeping this site going for three years. Well, three years on and off. I don’t know where the time went. Life has changed in major ways since April 2009. That was my first spring home, my first Real World spring, and I was hungry (in the hustle sense) and wide-eyed (in the opportunity sense).

If I had to encapsulate my time in Austin thus far, it would be this phrase: “Cometh the hour, cometh the man.”

I’m very excited to see where the next three years, cumulating in the big 3-0, take me.

Up a bit before 4:00AM (at time of writing) at the East Austin residence, freight lines creaking just under Pleasant Valley Rd. I realized my closet has been overtaken by a deluge of yuppie style, conservative suits, solid and stripped shirts, and two hangers full of ties (probably should invest in a rack). I wear a suit at least five days a week for the majority of the day, 10 hours+. It’s the reality of the times, my busy, busy times. And I enjoy it. Funny though how quickly my causal wear style stalled out.

I don’t subscribe to the the oft-cited Gen Y demand for a work/life balance, for me its a situational sliding scale, but a man needs options for when out of uniform (Friday after 8PM through Sunday as long as I can stay awake).

I need to step up my non-work wear. God forbid I wake up one day to a closet full of “dad jeans” and size-too large polos.

“We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It’s just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn’t have expected.” –Ben Okri